1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a refuse collecting vehicle for collecting and transporting separated waste materials, the vehicle being specifically adapted for separating and transporting recyclable materials such as glass, paper and plastic of the type present in domestic refuse.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The recovery of recyclable materials such as paper, plastic and glass from domestic refuse is of increasing concern at the present time. The public is increasingly concerned with the necessity of conserving natural resources and energy. This concern is heightened by the problem of solid waste disposal which has been brought to the public attention in a number of dramatic fashions in recent years.
Although many home owners are concerned with the problem of solid waste disposal and with the depletion of natural resources there is, at the present time, no convenient and economically feasible solution to the problem at hand. Recyclable materials such as papers, plastic and glass are only economically reusable if separated from domestic refuse by suitable sorting and collection techniques. Best results have been achieved in residential areas with a predominant number of single or two-family buildings, i.e., detached and semi-detached house buildings. This type of collection is burdened, however, by high cost, since relatively few buildings are accessed within a given collection distance. Although many neighborhood associations have attempted to provide recycling services, these efforts have often required volunteer effort to collect and transport the separated waste materials in private vehicles. The availability of a specially adapted collection vehicle would undoubtedly increase private sector participation in recycling efforts.
One proposed solution to the problem has been a specially constructed trailer having separate waste compartments which open from the side, the trailer being towed behind a conventional refuse collection vehicle. However, the separate trailer compartments were capable of only holding a limited volume of recyclable materials, making such an arrangement impractical for most applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,205 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,125 both show compartmented refuse collecting vehicles in which the vehicle body has separate collecting chambers for receiving separated recyclable materials. These designs featured complicated tailgate sections which required the use of removeable partitions or other awkward and expensive baffle arrangements for directing the separated recyclable materials into the intended compartments within the vehicle body.
The present invention has as its object to provide a vehicle and method for collecting domestic refuse, allowing separation of the waste materials into separate and distinct recyclable categories and for transporting such recyclable materials to a remote collection point without greatly increasing the labor cost, working time, or expense of the collection operation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a refuse collecting vehicle having a storage body with a plurality of internal storage chambers for receiving separated refuse materials from individual material receiving bins provided on the exterior of the storage body.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for transferring materials collected in such material receiving bins to the distinct storage chambers located within the storage body.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for sequentially dumping the distinct storage chambers in the storage body to thereby selectively discharge material from each of the distinct storage chambers at one or more collection locations located externally of the storage body.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a vehicle of simplified design over currently available designs and yet offer greater capacity than is currently available.